Trump Year Two Starts with Major Tech and Cyber Vacancies

Jim Larkin/Shutterstock.com

Roughly one-quarter of agency CIOs and one-third of CISOs are serving on an acting basis one year into the Trump administration.

Donald Trump closed the first year of his presidency this weekend with a slew of vacancies in top information technology and cybersecurity posts, an absence former officials say imperils efforts to upgrade the government’s aging IT infrastructure and could endanger national security.

About one-quarter of CFO Act agency chief information officer slots are filled on an acting basis rather than by permanent career CIOs or political appointees who carry the sanction of the president. That percentage has decreased from the 300-day mark, when acting CIOs lead one-third of agencies, according to a Nextgov tally.

About one-third of agency chief information security officers also hold their jobs on an acting basis. The same is true for the federal chief information officer, the federal chief information security officer and the two top posts in the Homeland Security Department’s cybersecurity and infrastructure protection division, which is substantially responsible for the civilian government’s cybersecurity.

“What I’m seeing is almost treading water,” said Lisa Schlosser, a former deputy federal chief information officer during the Obama administration. “There’s a real lack of leadership.”

Caretakers in Charge

The preponderance of acting tech and cybersecurity leaders is not necessarily a clear and present danger to the government. Most acting CIOs have logged long careers in government and are deeply knowledgeable about their agencies.  

They’re caretakers, though, who typically lack a mandate to make big changes. And if there’s one thing current and former tech officials agree on it’s that federal IT is in dire need of change.

Too often, tech and cyber officials are invested in the way things have always been done at their agencies, which can be a killer for reform, Schlosser said.

“When you’re a CIO, you’re a change agent; you’re always driving change,” Schlosser said. “So, if you’ve been in an agency a long time, it’s hard to see what needs to change. It’s hard to lead a disruptive process when you’re used to the way it’s always been.”

Acting CIOs and other officials, though well qualified for their jobs, may also have more trouble rallying support from both superiors and subordinates for major changes, said Mallory Barg Bulman, a vice president for research and evaluation at the Partnership for Public Service.

“I compare it to when my kids have a substitute teacher,” Barg Bulman said. “It’s not that the substitute isn’t terrific, but a sub has less authority than a full-time teacher in the classroom.”

In the case of the Trump administration, an early IT modernization push during the administration’s first year is beginning to bear fruit in year two. The Modernizing Government Technology Act, which will create a $500 million IT modernization fund that agencies can borrow from, passed in December as part of an annual defense policy bill.

Agencies are also adapting operations to comply with a May executive order, which required them to follow a Commerce Department framework for cybersecurity and to hold a top agency official accountable for errors or poor management that lead to a data breach.

The American Technology Council, an ad hoc group created by the president, released an IT modernization plan in December that calls for more investment in cloud technology and more shared IT services across government.

A separate group, the Office of American Innovation, led by the president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, is also promoting tech modernization.  

Those efforts may be stymied, though, if acting CIOs and other officials who don’t think they have the full faith of the administration are hesitant to make big decisions, said Dave Wennergren, a longtime Defense Department official who’s now a managing director at the consultant Deloitte.

“History shows us that reforms and recommendations become reality as they become instantiated into a new way of doing business,” Wennergren said. “To turn bold new ideas into reality, you need to have people in a position that can see the ideas through to execution.”

More Outsiders than Insiders

In addition to non-permanent staff among tech and security officials, Wennergren pointed to vacancies among the top ranks of many agencies and at the White House Office of Management and Budget, which guides policy across the government.

The Trump administration had confirmed 301 political appointees across government as of Jan. 13, according to a tally maintained by the Partnership For Public Service. That’s compared with 452 confirmed at the same time by the Obama administration and 493 by the George W. Bush administration.

The 559 officials Trump has nominated so far, also lags Obama’s 690 nominees and Bush’s 741.

Trump nominated Margaret Weichert to be the government’s top management official—OMB’s deputy director for management—in September, but she has yet to be confirmed by the Senate. The Homeland Security Committee forwarded Weichert’s nomination to the Senate floor earlier this month.

It’s common for a new administration to want to shake up the way the government manages technology and other priorities, Wennergren said. What’s different about the Trump administration is that it seems to have put more effort toward standing up ad hoc, semi-independent and external bodies, such as the American Technology Council and the Office of American Innovation, than to filling the ranks of technology and management leaders who will implement the recommendations those external bodies make.

The result, he said, is that there’s an excess of bold new ideas and a mandate for big changes but there’s a dearth of frontline people who can make day-to-day decisions that ensure those big changes happen and happen right.

“You can get very excited about changing things and coming up with a reform agenda, but those things only become reality if someone’s seeing them through to implementation,” Wennergren said.

The implementation of big new tech ideas may also be stymied by budget uncertainty, Wennergren said. Technology and acquisition officials will feel less confident about committing to major new initiatives when they're funded through a series of short-term continuing resolutions and living under the threat of government shutdowns, he said. 

Waiting Their Turn

Trump campaigned as an outsider candidate who would shake up the way government operates. He responded to early questions about the slow pace of nominations by saying he planned to save the government money by not filling many of those posts.

Agency CIO and CISO positions are not among the positions Trump intends to leave vacant, though, nor are top cybersecurity positions at Homeland Security, Trump’s White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Rob Joyce told Nextgov in November.

Joyce predicted a wave of tech and cybersecurity nominations once higher-level management nominations are out of the way.

The percentage of permanent CIOs has increased some since November, however, and with the administration’s second year beginning, time may be running short to fill out the ranks before agencies fall behind on new policy initiatives.  

“Technology is moving so quickly,” Schlosser, the Obama administration deputy federal CIO, said. “Every day you have an acting person instead of a new, permanent person who’s committed to change you’re getting further and further behind.

Jack Corrigan and Heather Kuldell contributed to this article. 

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.